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Shin Megami Tensei IV Import Impressions Thread of Doom

Is it true that 天使/Divine class demons aren't regular enemy encounters in this game? that's actually kinda neat, because it's like they won't even descend down to tokyo because it's so filthy with demons.
 
New DLC:
A school uniform for Flynn (it's a boy version of the one Hikaru wears) and two new demons. One is a gold version of Minotaur and the other is... this... Plasma... thing...
 
Both DLCs that offer a new demon are like the EXP one. The Minotaur one has battles that drop items that sell for high amounts of Macca. The Plasma one gives APPLICATION POINT ITEMS. So. More pay to win. The demons aren't particularly good either. At least not for the point I am at, maybe I am too far along to see their usefulness.
 
Is it true that 天使/Divine class demons aren't regular enemy encounters in this game? that's actually kinda neat, because it's like they won't even descend down to tokyo because it's so filthy with demons.
I think this has story reasons.

Early spoiler: When your samurai characters come to
Tokyo
, the tainted people
view them as angels who have come from above the ceiling of the world. If angel demons would roam Tokyo, the arrival of the angel samurai wouldn't be such a big deal.

Later spoiler:
A group of high level angels become the new rulers of Mikado. So it makes sense that there shouldn't be angel encounters in Mikado since they're "the good guys".

And do the translations really use an euphemism for angels? Tenshi means the ones who serve the heavens and those are angels. Divine class sounds like they're gods which they are clearly not.

How many save slots does the game have?
Hopefully it has at least three for each of the endings.
Like already said, it has two. But you could get the download version and make frequent backups of your saves.

I haven't gotten any SD card incidents since the two I mentioned earlier. Now 54h into the game.
 
And do the translations really use an euphemism for angels? Tenshi means the ones who serve the heavens and those are angels. Divine class sounds like they're gods which they are clearly not.

It's not a euphemism, it's to avoid really awkward looking text when you're talking about the Angel or Archangel demon in the "Angel" class.
 
22 hours in and *STORY SPOILERS*
Walter just ran off after Lilith was all "go check out what's in Roppongi Hills yo. The question hallway leading up to it was pretty cool, though it hit a few spots that were much closer to home than I was expecting. Specifically that last one.

So good.
 
It's not a euphemism, it's to avoid really awkward looking text when you're talking about the Angel or Archangel demon in the "Angel" class.

Okay, those demons have the English words as names in Japanese so I see that they could cause redundancies. But it would have made more sense to rename those two to create the same effect the name has on a Japanese gamer, like Angelus for Angel (sounds sufficiently foreign), or have the class be called angelic instead of angel.
 
Okay, those demons have the English words as names in Japanese so I see that they could cause redundancies. But it would have made more sense to rename those two to create the same effect the name has on a Japanese gamer, like Angelus for Angel (sounds sufficiently foreign), or have the class be called angelic instead of angel.

Angel Angelus?
Angelic Angel?

Don't think there's an easy way out for this one.
 
Okay, those demons have the English words as names in Japanese so I see that they could cause redundancies. But it would have made more sense to rename those two to create the same effect the name has on a Japanese gamer, like Angelus for Angel (sounds sufficiently foreign), or have the class be called angelic instead of angel.

Nah, what they did makes perfect sense. I don't think anyone has a problem with them, and it sounds pretty good in general. Renaming actual demons would definitely be a worse choice. The race modifier is more of a gameplay/menu term than a story term, so categorizing them as "Divine" type demons is fine. In the story text when people are talking about angels in general, it's usually translated as such. There's really no confusion at all.
 
Angel is the lowest level tenshi demon (similar to Pixie in most SMTs being the lowest elf/fairy demon). It is not uncommon in scientific classification that the most commonly known specimen is the same name as the family that entails also other, similar specimen.

Divine is a work around for stylistic reasons (and one that makes it less clear that all the other angels are in fact also angels even if not all look like it), but given the encyclopedia nature of the demon data screens they might have gone with repeating the term, it would have fit the 'genre' of the texts the redundancies occur in.
 
Oh Mishaguji. You're such a dick head.

BLg4n9oCUAA__-f.jpg:large
 
Angel is the lowest level tenshi demon (similar to Pixie in most SMTs being the lowest elf/fairy demon). It is not uncommon in scientific classification that the most commonly known specimen is the same name as the family that entails also other, similar specimen.

Divine is a work around for stylistic reasons (and one that makes it less clear that all the other angels are in fact also angels even if not all look like it), but given the encyclopedia nature of the demon data screens they might have gone with repeating the term, it would have fit the 'genre' of the texts the redundancies occur in.

It's a game, though, not an encyclopaedia. And the demon data screens are something that you have to choose to view, as opposed to the text that appears during normal gameplay and is beyond the player's control, e.g. "Angel Angel appeared!"

Plus, given that one of the demon categories for this instalment is "Food" (in English, no less), I don't think the player is expected to read too much into the whole taxonomy thing.

Edit: Trivia - we already have a word for angels in general, which is "host".
 
Angel is the lowest level tenshi demon (similar to Pixie in most SMTs being the lowest elf/fairy demon). It is not uncommon in scientific classification that the most commonly known specimen is the same name as the family that entails also other, similar specimen.

Divine is a work around for stylistic reasons (and one that makes it less clear that all the other angels are in fact also angels even if not all look like it), but given the encyclopedia nature of the demon data screens they might have gone with repeating the term, it would have fit the 'genre' of the texts the redundancies occur in.

Divine is a good term, and it in no way makes it less clear that all the demons in the class are angels - the artwork, the names, and the descriptions in the flavor text all make it abundantly clear. All other ideas being suggested here are worse than the one they picked, so it stands to reason that they made the right choice.
 
10 hours in, I have just
arrived in Tokyo.

Some random spoilery thoughts so far:
I think Medusa's face was drawn pretty badly.
Why is Sun Wukong weak to Bufu?!
That scene where everyone looked down from the tower at Tokyo had me thinking "Reverse Etrian Odyssey".
I was wondering why they kept referring to text written in "the language of magic", then I suddenly realized that was Japanese. That kind of blew my mind, when I figured out that in-universe they're not necessarily speaking Japanese up there in Mikado.
 
10 hours in, I have just
arrived in Tokyo.

Some random spoilery thoughts so far:
I think Medusa's face was drawn pretty badly.
Why is Sun Wukong weak to Bufu?!
That scene where everyone looked down from the tower at Tokyo had me thinking "Reverse Etrian Odyssey".
I was wondering why they kept referring to text written in "the language of magic", then I suddenly realized that was Japanese. That kind of blew my mind, when I figured out that in-universe they're not necessarily speaking Japanese up there in Mikado.

Just mentally
replace "magic words" with "moon runes"
:D
 
It's a game, though, not an encyclopaedia. And the demon data screens are something that you have to choose to view, as opposed to the text that appears during normal gameplay and is beyond the player's control, e.g. "Angel Angel appeared!"
In which of the recent/officially translated games does such a message appear though? The demon data screens are like a short encyclopedic entry so it wouldn't even be too terrible to have Angel next to Angel. Not much worse than Fairy next to Pixie which is a bit redundant also.

Plus, given that one of the demon categories for this instalment is "Food" (in English, no less), I don't think the player is expected to read too much into the whole taxonomy thing.
Food is food, angels are angels. No need to read anything into it, the problem is, divine deviates from the concept of angels. It's close enough but the question is, was it necessary to use a differing term?

For example, if one of the food demons had a Japanese word as a name that translates to Food, should this one name be changed or the whole food demon type? Make one change affecting a single text location or a global change that affects the whole group of demons?

Divine is a good term, and it in no way makes it less clear that all the demons in the class are angels - the artwork, the names, and the descriptions in the flavor text all make it abundantly clear. All other ideas being suggested here are worse than the one they picked, so it stands to reason that they made the right choice.
Solone/Throne, Power, Principality aren't names that people automatically connect with angels.

ThroneDS.jpg

Throne doesn't look like the common image of an angel either.

Sure, if the translators felt it was necessary to make an adjustment than yes divine works and maybe better than what little we suggested in a matter of minutes.

I didn't play the localized game that established this or any of the later ones that might confirm the need for changing the term. So I don't want to blindly argue for or against something.

But I'm not fully convinced that angel couldn't have been used and since it's the term that is listed in data sheets both in game and in secondary texts I feel an exact translation should have been preferable to a deviation for stylistic sake. If you just take one glance at the data you can tell it's an angel if it says angel. Even if there isn't an illustration.

Divine is comprehensible for someone accustomed to this usage but that makes it unnecessarily esoteric. A secret term for something that could be obvious.

I stand corrected that the change wasn't based on the need to hide something, so no euphemism. But still divine is far from being ideal as a term for angels.
 
Solone/Throne, Power, Principality aren't names that people automatically connect with angels.

on the other hand, throne is literally the only divine class demon that is not immediately recognizable as some sort of angelic being.
3pM5iAa.png
et0USk7.png


In which of the recent/officially translated games does such a message appear though? The demon data screens are like a short encyclopedic entry so it wouldn't even be too terrible to have Angel next to Angel. Not much worse than Fairy next to Pixie which is a bit redundant also.

There's a difference between being kind of redundant and literally being redundant.

lDFUNJJ.png

(pretend this is Angel instead of Power)

"Hello I am Angel the Angel"
"Hello I am Angel of the Angel clan"

i mean, in the end, we're talking about angels, which are the most readily recognizable things for western audiences out of the entirety of smt.

you could absolutely make a case that some of the us class names don't communicate the intention very well (jiboshin -> lady is one of my least favorites, as are the any number of names that are left in japanese), but divine really isn't one of them.
 
How important is gear in this game? Because I just want to permanently have the Demonica on... I know there are stat boosts, but I can't imagine they're near as signifigant as demons.

Also, I saw a scan of a school uniform with plaid pants. that DLC?
 
How important is gear in this game? Because I just want to permanently have the Demonica on... I know there are stat boosts, but I can't imagine they're near as signifigant as demons.

Gear seems like the main definition of your character in SMT4. The equipment you wear basically determines your max HP, your max MP, and your affinities. Seems like a pretty big deal.
 
How important is gear in this game? Because I just want to permanently have the Demonica on... I know there are stat boosts, but I can't imagine they're near as signifigant as demons.

Also, I saw a scan of a school uniform with plaid pants. that DLC?

Gear alters your elemental resistances and gives you HP boosts. For what it's worth, it appears that legwear gives the biggest HP boosts, so if you wanted you could keep your Demonica Helmet and Body Armor on and just switch out the leg pieces for bigger boosts.
There's a normal Demonica later in the game you can purchase, too
.

Yes the school uniform is DLC.
 
How important is gear in this game? Because I just want to permanently have the Demonica on... I know there are stat boosts, but I can't imagine they're near as signifigant as demons.

Also, I saw a scan of a school uniform with plaid pants. that DLC?

Its pretty important, since wearing something that gives you a weakness against the enemy demons skills is a bad idea.
 
I've basically kept the same gear for most of the game, partially because of looks, partially because it's expensive as hell, and partially because I've really been abusing the reflect physical/reflect magic skills, which made covering weaknesses a bit easier.
 
Gear seems like the main definition of your character in SMT4. The equipment you wear basically determines your max HP, your max MP, and your affinities. Seems like a pretty big deal.
To be honest it mostly determines your weaknesses and resistances. The differences in HP aren't really that big for it to be a problem - I have street passed people on levels ranging from 1X to 99 and some of the higher guys were still wearing the armor I've got on lv 20.

Resistances are a big deal though - I was wondering if I should have a few sets on me at all times to be able to switch to a proper one before a boss fight...
 
Solone/Throne, Power, Principality aren't names that people automatically connect with angels.


Throne doesn't look like the common image of an angel either.

Err...what? Try looking them up on Google, or read the descriptions in the game. As for Throne's design, not all angels look like humans with wings.
 
To be honest it mostly determines your weaknesses and resistances. The differences in HP aren't really that big for it to be a problem - I have street passed people on levels ranging from 1X to 99 and some of the higher guys were still wearing the armor I've got on lv 20.

Resistances are a big deal though - I was wondering if I should have a few sets on me at all times to be able to switch to a proper one before a boss fight...

Interesting. Do you also get HP increase when you level up? Does the equipment only give that a slight boost? I was actually kinda worried that equipment would dictate the amount of HP you have in total.
 
Interesting. Do you also get HP increase when you level up? Does the equipment only give that a slight boost? I was actually kinda worried that equipment would dictate the amount of HP you have in total.

It's almost all from levelling up. Boosts from gear are marginal, except for a couple of accessories that might give you an extra 50-100 HP.
 
Interesting. Do you also get HP increase when you level up? Does the equipment only give that a slight boost? I was actually kinda worried that equipment would dictate the amount of HP you have in total.
Yes, you get hp and mp when leveling up. The hp differences between armor tiers aren't big enough to switch if you don't like the looks/resistances imo.

Edit:
And yes, accessories are the only piece of eq giving a significant hp/mp boost.
 
I figured Walter would be getting all the fanart like Jiminez but Jonathan's getting a manga and a bunch of fanart. Damn Afro Jesus.
 
It looks like the really expensive late game legwear gives you like
~130
HP, headgear is
~50
and body armor is around
~30
, so I guess it's not something you need to worry about too much. For comparison's sake, the early game stuff is ~10 for headgear, ~7 for body armor and ~20 for legwear. (And for even more comparisons: The early game stuff costs about ~500 macca while the late game stuff costs six figures)
 
I've been wearing the black demonica armor for the last 15 hours, lol.
But now I'm wondering what is influencing physical resistance with the absence of 体 and stats for armors. Is that 力?
 
I've been wearing the black demonica armor for the last 15 hours, lol.
But now I'm wondering what is influencing physical resistance with the absence of 体 and stats for armors. Is that 力?

I believe it's like SMT3 where there's no defense stat of any kind and the only real modifiers for lessening damage come from your resistances.
 
you could absolutely make a case that some of the us class names don't communicate the intention very well (jiboshin -> lady is one of my least favorites, as are the any number of names that are left in japanese), but divine really isn't one of them.

I've always wondered about that. A few of the categories (Divine, Fairy, etc.) seem pretty obvious and comprehensible, but a lot of them I've always found pretty impenetrable, and Lady is high up on the list.
 
I believe it's like SMT3 where there's no defense stat of any kind and the only real modifiers for lessening damage come from your resistances.

But there is a Vitality stat in SMT3.
Still, you may be right but in that case, a high level character against a demon with, say, 100 in Strength and a strong physical skill would take considerably more damage than a low lvl character against a demon with 10 Str and a weak skill. The difference in HP isn't really huge either.
 
I've always wondered about that. A few of the categories (Divine, Fairy, etc.) seem pretty obvious and comprehensible, but a lot of them I've always found pretty impenetrable, and Lady is high up on the list.

The Lady clan itself is kind of weird. It's like half personifications of nature and half fertility goddesses and sometimes just consorts to dudes from the Fury clan. (SMT3's Lady group is especially weird)

But there is a Vitality stat in SMT3.
Still, you may be right but in that case, a high level character against a demon with, say, 100 in Strength and a strong physical skill would take considerably more damage than a low lvl character against a demon with 10 Str and a weak skill. The difference in HP isn't really huge either.

The Vitality stat in SMT3 just raises your HP. Your level is also factored into your attack damage (I'm pretty sure your allies' damage uses their base level rather than their current level), so maybe level is also the basis for defense?
 
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